Californian Killed with Lidle had been flying since teen years. (Assoc. Press) He fell in love with them while they flew over his Rialto Home

Californian killed with Lidle had been flying since teen years

JOHN ROGERS

Associated Press

LA VERNE, Calif. - Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle said flying relieved the stress of his pro baseball life. But for his instructor, Tyler Stanger, flying was life itself and had been since he was a boy.

Both were on an aerial tour of New York City when Lidle's plane slammed into a Manhattan high-rise Wednesday. It was not clear who was at the controls. Lidle had been licensed for less than a year while Stanger, 26, had been flying since he was a teen.

He trained Lidle at his tiny, two-plane flight school at Brackett Field in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. At Howard Aviation, an airfield operation where Stanger went to work as a mechanic while still in high school, employees were grim-faced and some wept when his name was mentioned.

"He was just a super guy, just too young to die," company owner Robin Howard said.

Howard said he spoke to Stanger's wife, Stephanie, by phone Thursday morning.

"She's struggling with this. We just have to look to the Lord to get us through this," he said.

Stanger had left for New York on a brief vacation with Lidle's family.

"He was very excited about the trip. He was really excited that he was going to get to see New York and fly back with Cory. They had become great friends," Howard said.

Howard said Stanger called him from a New Jersey airport about 45 minutes before the crash Wednesday and told him the plan was to make a brief aerial tour of Manhattan and then head west, arriving home on Saturday.

"Cory was probably in the pilot's seat flying the airplane and Tyler was there to give him support," Howard said.

Stanger was a common and popular visitor to the Brackett Field coffee shop, Norm's Hangar, where he often took students for debriefing.

"He was such a sweet guy, a genuinely down-to-earth person," owner Kathy Touche said, wiping away a tear. "He seemed kind of shy to me at first. He was more quiet until you got to know him, and then he opened up."

Dave Conriguez, the cook and a baseball fan, showed a laminated check with Lidle's autograph that he got when Stanger brought the ballplayer to the shop.

He last spoke to Stanger on Sunday. The instructor told him he was heading to New York, Conriguez said.

"They were going to fly back together. It was right after the loss to Detroit," he said. "Tyler's such a great flight instructor that I never gave it a second thought. It was just, 'See you in a week.'"

He had told Stanger "as soon as Cory gets back, I'm going to have my picture taken with him in a Yankee hat," Conriguez said.

Stanger earned his pilot's license by 17 and earned a degree in aviation management from Southern Illinois University, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. He worked for several years as an aircraft mechanic at Howard Aviation.

Stanger had known Lidle, who lived in Southern California in the offseason, for about a year. According to the New York Times, they met the day after the 2005 baseball season ended and flew to Long Beach, Calif. Lidle, who had never flown a plane, was hooked.

Lidle "was probably my best student," and had a knack for dealing with simulated emergency situations, Stanger told the newspaper last month.

"On the mound, he has to hold in all the emotions and keep completely focused. It's the same thing flying: If you're in an emergency, you can't waste any time worrying," Stanger said. "You have to take command of the situation. A lot of people I fly with don't have that mentality. Cory does."

Stanger's 3-year-old business, Stang-AIR, offered instruction, plane rentals and sightseeing trips.

Stanger is survived by his wife, who is pregnant, and an infant daughter. His parents live in the San Gabriel Valley city of Walnut where he grew up, and he has a brother, Camren, in Utah.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that Stanger once said he fell in love with planes while watching them fly over his home near Rialto Airport as a boy.

Stang-AIR's now-defunct Web site contained a quote that said: "The most dangerous part about flying is the drive to the airport."

A friend from high school, freelance photographer David Pardo, said flying was "his life and his passion."

Stanger was an adventurous man who nonetheless insisted on safety and felt absolutely confident behind the controls of his own airplane, according to Pardo.

He said Stanger flew him out to take photographs after a January 2005 mudslide disaster in the coastal town of La Conchita.

"He was like, 'Dude, you're safe with me.' I trusted him with my life," Pardo said.

Pardo said Stanger told him: "I know my plane and I just know that I will never get in a crash with my plane."

"I believe had it been his own plane ... he would have been able to pull through," he said.